1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to object detection using optical flow in spiking neuron networks, for use in robotics, video processing, and machine vision applications.
2. Description of Related Art
Detection of object and distance estimation may be required in a variety of robotics applications for various purposes including obstacle detection and avoidance, target tracking, image dominant plane extraction, movement detection, robot navigation, visual odometry, and/or other purposes. Optical flow (OF) information may be useful for object detection and/or distance measurement.
Existing implementations may employ differential methods for optical flow estimation. Such methods may utilize successive images and solve basic optical flow equations for groups of neighboring pixels within the image, and use the optical flow to estimate distance to obstacles. However, such methods may require substantial computational resources in order to solve nonlinear algebraic equations, high frame rate, and pixel resolution to reduce noise. Optical flow cancellation that utilizes direct estimation of motion may produce noisy results. Optical flow-based object detection techniques may require multiple sensors (e.g., a camera and a range finder, multiple cameras, and/or other sensors) in order to distinguish between a close slowly moving objects and distant faster-moving objects.